1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates devices, or slides, that assist musicians playing stringed instruments, usually a guitar. A slide allows a musician to contact one or a plurality of strings to produce a completely different sound from the regular sounds of the instrument.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Traditional guitar slides are primarily cylindrical and made of brass, chrome or glass. Aspirin bottles or beer bottle necks have been used commonly as slides for the guitar. Glass offers a purer and cleaner sound, whereas metal or brass is more of a “dirty” or “blues” sound.
Slides have been used in both open and traditional tunings. A musician can use the slide for one or more notes at the same time. Lead guitarists learn the skill of muffling unwanted noise from un-played or unwanted strings. This is accomplished by dampening strings with parts of either hand, resulting in limited or multi strings resonating melodies or tones. Slides have historically consisted of various lengths (distance from end to end) and radii.
A full width slide generally accommodates the entire width of a guitar neck (most useful for open tunings, most commonly “Open G”). Less commonly used shorter lengths are less cumbersome and work for a limited number of strings. An aspirin bottle for example is shorter than a full length slide and therefore has these characteristics, relative to a full length slide.
Problems have always remained with the bulky masses that slides inherently are, which exclude the normal use of the guitarist's fretboard hand. One of the problems has been this: Either the guitarist is playing “regular” guitar or the guitarist is playing “slide” guitar. One method, or style, has unfortunately precluded the other. Guitarists have been forced to drop or throw slides to the ground in an attempt to quickly return to the “regular” guitar passage. Having the slide available immediately when and where needed is important. It is a major obstacle that performing guitarists don't generally have a convenient way to access and dispose of a slide while performing on stage.
One device, #4,790,232 by Rosen, attempts to solve this particular problem by providing a holding mechanism attached to the guitar for the guitar slide when not in use. Unfortunately, the process of placing and removing it is still a process and takes time. Valuable time is spent using it instead of seamlessly performing with the instrument. The device would also appear to require perhaps unwanted modifications to the instrument.
A number of slides are of shorter lengths and therefore less bulky than a full length slide. D360,647 by Jaminez does not allow for the fingers to fully bend and/or contact the fretboard when the slide is in playing position. This device also has to be spun around to the other side of the hand than the “backhand” or fingernail side shown. Lastly, it also does not function as wearable jewelry. Another design, #5,515,762, is also is of a shorter length but it does not allow for the player's actual fingertip to contact the string. Therefore the player's slide fingertip cannot be used for regular contact to the fretboard. A third device, #4,817,488 by De los Santos would either fall off the hand in the event of a finger spread or prevent the spread. Spreading the fingers, called a “stretch”, is often required by guitar players. Furthermore, none of these designs are useful as jewelry which is both attractive and instantly accessible to the musician, nor do they eliminate the problems of the devices being cumbersome and ill-fitting. At best, they require adjustment between the fingertips contacting strings and the slide contacting strings. They don't allow for the “seamless” transition between the two styles.
Recorded guitar music tends to reflect the fact that guitarists are either playing a song without a slide, or they are playing a song with a slide. There's not much in between, because of the problems above.